“That’s no fair, he used his voice to win,” Jongup grumbled as he slunk down beside me.

I patted his shoulder. Jongup looked genuinly dejected, with his bottom lip pushed slightly forward into a pout. I couldn't help but notice how cute and childish he appeared. “Don’t worry, I still think you were really-“

“Yah! _____, you’re up.” Youngjae yelled, cutting me off.

Rushed, I sped over the past events in my head. Daehyun had won the last round. Everybody else had been defeated in the previous matches. Standing by himself in the center of the room, Daehyun raised his eyebrows and stared expectantly at me. I suddenly realized that I had also won my match, which meant he and I were the only two left in the competition.

“Are you coming?” Daehyun exasperated.

“I-I uh,” I stuttered, trying to conjure up an excuse.  I wished for Jongup’s support, but he didn’t seem to notice my silent pleas. Finally able to catch his breath, he rested his head against the back wall and closed his eyes contentedly.

Letting out a long sigh of defeat, I dragged myself up. As I trudged over to join Daehyun, the look of amusement on his face grew. The remaining members of B.A.P waited in anticipation.

The ‘click click click’ of what sounded like a pair of high heels played through the surrounding speakers. I confusedly shuffled over to Daehyun. Was this the next song? My question was quickly answered as the clacking stopped and the catchy whistling that belonged with the tune started.

“Ohh, it’s Troublemaker,” Zelo mused.

Daehyun advanced on me and whispered, “Ready?”

My mouth went dry and the palms of my hands began to sweat. How could I have not recognized this song before? HyunA and Hyunseung’s famous duet, ‘Troublemaker’, only played on the radio a gazillion times a day. And this song wasn’t exactly a good song to dance to if you were uncoordinated like I was. Not to mention I’ve always found the video to be incredibly scandalous and risqué. I wouldn’t even be able to dance this by myself, let alone with Daehyun.

As Hyunseung’s fast paced Korean filled the dance practice room, Daehyun placed his hands on my hips. He swayed me back and forth to the beat of the song, his lips twitching upwards. I felt my face redden from his touch. Frantically prying his hands from my hips, I tried my best to calm my frayed nerves.

The members cheered and hollered at us, which only caused me to blush even harder. Daehyun looked like he was enjoying this way too much. He rushed to me, latching onto my hands, sending me into a spin. I spun too fast and stumbled forward. Daehyun saw this and quickly caught me and yanked me upwards into him. My breath escaped me and I found myself being completely overrun by Daehyun. My skin prickled as he ran his hand across my neck.

“What are you doing?” I squeaked. “This is a dancing competition, not some touchy-feely partner dance!”

“Yeah, I know it’s a dance competition. And by the looks of my member’s faces, it looks like I’m winning,” Daehyun replied nonchalantly. He let me go and slid backwards, his feet gliding, becoming one with the beat. He spun around several times before he stuck a very difficult looking pose.

The crowd cheered, encouraging him more and more with every hoot and holler. He wasn’t even trying anymore, he was just showing off.

Daehyun cocked an eyebrow at me.

Clenching my fists, I held my tongue. ‘He’s just playing with me. He’s just playing with me,’ I repeated over and over in my head. He’s not even taking this dance battle seriously, so why am I getting so worked up over it?

No matter how hard I tried though, no matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t figure out why I was so torn. Even though it was just a competition, I wanted to win. My inner competitiveness was taking over. Once again, I wanted to beat Daehyun.

And in order to do that, I needed to grab the audience’s attention.

I proudly sautéed up to Daehyun, trying my best to put out an air of confidence. I had no time to think of what to do as he smirked expectantly at me.

 Gripping onto his shoulder, I rolled my body into his, our chests barely grazing up against each other.

Daehyun freely complied along with me, allowing his body to move with mine. His hands wandered down my back, his finger’s shockingly cold as they brushed across my thin shirt. I could sense him trying to show me up once again, and I couldn’t let that happen.

Stringing my hands around his neck, I pulled his face dangerously close to mine. However, I quickly regretted my actions. His wide eyes peered strangely at me, calmly studying me. His hot breath fanned across my face. His musky, deep scent hung around me, sending me into an internal panic. We were so close.

“Woah! Go _____!” Youngjae cheered.

Daehyun pulled my arms off of his neck and jumped backwards. He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.

He knew it as much as I had; we had both been extremely uncomfortable with being that close. I had never seen Daehyun look so nervous and afflicted before. I wonder what made him go so stiff all of a sudden though. It’s not like we haven’t been closer.

“Well, I give up.”

I faltered. “What?

Daehyun meandered over to reclaim his spot where he sat before on the edge of the dance-floor. “I said that I give up. You’re the better dancer, so you win.”

Yongguk, who had witnessed the sudden attitude change in Daehyun, had confusion written all over his face. “So… I guess we have a winner than?”

Daehyun avoided my glare as he dug through his jean pocket.

Crossing my hands over my chest, I tapped my foot against the wood paneled floor in utter annoyance. “I’ve seen you dance before. About five minutes ago, with Jongup actually. I know you can dance better than that.”

Disregarding me, Daehyun whipped out his cell-phone and began hastily punching in somebody’s number.

“So you plan on ignoring me now? So like you,” I said bitterly.

“Oh, hi!” Daehyun shouted obnoxiously into his phone. “Yes it is, how are you?”

I snorted in disbelief and rolled my eyes.

 Daehyun, still choosing to ignore me, continued talking into his phone with his faux-polite tone. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that guys and I will be coming down tonight, so save us a big table. Oh,” he glanced at me. “There’s a girl, too.”

“What’s he doing?” I caught Zelo whispering to Jongup.

“Uh-huh, thank-you!” Daehyun said, ending the call.

“What was that all about?” Youngjae half laughed, clambering over to where Daehyun sat. He attempted to pry the phone out of Daehyun’s hands, but Daehyun, being too fast, swiftly shoved the cell-phone back into his pocket.

“Oh, it's nothing,” Daehyun said as he swatted away Youngjae’s hands. “I just called the owner's of our favorite beef restraunt." Seeing the confused faces of all of s, he continued. "Well, it's because _____’s the winner, so she has to buy all of us dinner now. You didn’t forget, did you?”